I would like to speak about a lovely, beautiful place in North Queensland, the Pioneer Valley. I had the privilege last week to travel up to Eungella and its surrounds around the Pioneer Valley, and I thank all of the local residents who came out to meet with me. A few weeks ago the people of the Pioneer Valley had their world turned upside down. The Queensland government announced that it would flood around 50 homes in the Pioneer Valley, and the people of Pioneer Valley found out in the news that their homes would be flooded. I spoke to one family whose daughter found out from others and had to go home after school and ask her parents what was going on. This is no way to treat people. Whatever your view on this particular project, the way the Queensland government has treated Queenslanders here is despicable, making them find out from the news, from their own children, that their family homes would be flooded under a Queensland government plan.
The situation is that the government announced in big flashing lights a new $62 billion energy plan, a component of which was a $12 billion investment in a Burdekin-Pioneer pumped hydro system. Not one minister or official or anyone else connected with the Queensland government had visited the Pioneer Valley to inspect this scheme before committing $12 billion of taxpayers’ funds to it. This is fiscal recklessness on steroids, because if anyone from the Queensland government had gone to the Pioneer Valley, they would have seen a subtropical rainforest and they would have known that there would be endangered species in this area. They would have seen that there are regular mudslides on the mountain they want to put this pumped hydro scheme on, which may just raise the question of whether it is safe to do. Before they commit billions of taxpayers’ dollars you would think they would drill a few holes, walk the ground, ask some engineers. But, no, that is not how the Queensland government operate. They are more interested in a press release than a project.
I don’t think this project will ever proceed, because it has been designed on the back of a postage stamp, but I am standing with the people of the Pioneer Valley to ensure this project never goes ahead, because the way they have been treated is absolutely terrible. Up there in the Pioneer Valley last week I had meetings in Finch Hatton and Eungella and visited a number of people’s residences and homes. They expressed to me their love for the area, the beauty of the area and the complete contempt with which they have been treated by the Queensland government. Not only had they found out through the news; a few days later swarms of bureaucrats in new shirts, just freshly ordered from RB Sellars, turned up, each with a little embroidered Queensland Hydro logo on their chest.
This organisation didn’t exist a month ago, and now there are dozens of public servants based in Brisbane trying to tell people what to do in the Pioneer Valley. Worse, those people couldn’t answer simple questions for the people of Pioneer Valley. For example the Queensland government hasn’t been able to clarify for the people of Pioneer Valley if they can access legal assistance funded by the Queensland government. The Queensland government is acting worse here than the worst mining company in Queensland. Best-practice mining companies today will offer to fund the legal assistance of landowners affected by their own projects, yet the Queensland government has failed to offer even that basic protection to people who stand to lose their homes.
Last week, after my visit, I wrote to the new CEO of Queensland Hydro, Chris Evans, asking him, as a matter of good faith, to restore some degree of faith and trust with the community of the Pioneer Valley by offering such assistance, and offering it in writing, making it very clear that local residents can choose their own legal assistance, funded by the Queensland government.
Madam Acting Deputy President, people are being asked and pressured to sell their homes in the next few months. I’ve heard that they’re being asked to resolve these acquisitions by March next year—over Christmas—and they’ve been threatened with compulsory acquisition if they don’t do so. I ask the Queensland government to take compulsory acquisition off the table, because it is not fair to make people find out that they’re going to lose their homes and to then come and threaten them with an army of bureaucrats when they don’t have legal representation and don’t know their rights. They’re trying to hoodwink these people into selling out their livelihoods at a cheap price.
This project has to stop for now. This project should be sent back to the drawing board. If they want to proceed with something like this, there should be more than a desktop study done at ANU in Canberra. That was the foundation of this—a desktop study on Google Maps. They need to actually take the Queensland people into their trust before they do anything.
